Nenagh Fire

Watching this fire yesterday morning, I couldn’t help but be struck with a sense of pride in our local fire fighters.

I think we all owe a deep debt of gratitude to the men and women of our fire department that risk their lives every day in protecting our lives and property in dealing with fires like this one.

Judging by the equipment that arrived on the scene, the Fire Brigade is equipped to deal with much larger fires than the one they were faced with yesterday morning and they brought it under control with relative ease. To me as an onlooker, it appeared to be a fairly routine task to deal with it. I would hazard a guess though that it was the expertise of the firemen and the equipment at their disposal made it look that way.

No fire is simple and without its own inherent danger and they all, no matter how small, need to be treated with the healthy respect that they deserve.

I hope I never need the services of the Nenagh Fire Brigade, but, if ever I do, it’s certainly comforting to know that such an expert and dedicated crew are there to come to my assistance.

The following are some more pictures and videos from the scene.

Nenagh Fire

The peace and tranquillity of our neighbourhood was shattered in the early hours of this morning when a huge fire gutted an unoccupied house almost directly across the road from where I live. I was awakened around 6.30am by loud banging noises coming from the area close by my house and, eventually, having gone to investigate, I saw the house, which was currently under repair, consumed by flames. By this time other neighbours were on the scene and I was told the fire brigade was on its way. Three units were soon on the scene and they quickly brought the fire under control. The house, which was completely gutted by the flames, is joined on one side by a pub and restaurant and on the other side by a private house. Luckily, neither of those showed any outward damage but I’m sure they will have to be inspected at a later stage to see if the heat from such an inferno affected them in any way. Luckier still, there was no loss of life and that is the principal thing.

Firemen in the aftermath of the fire hosing down the ruin

Stop and smell the flowers.....

or listen to this bird sing.

I don’t know if it is due to the fact that I am getting older or that I have more time on my hands now that I am retired but, of late, things of nature seem to be playing a more important part in my life.

During my visits to Minnesota to Tom and Judy’s home, I relish in seeing the huge variety of wildlife that surround their house and the videos and pictures they send me of whatever species of bird or animal that decide to appear to them on any given day.

Well not to be outdone, I have acquired my own special visitor in the last few days – or should I say mornings and late evenings, because I rarely see or hear him during the day. Ok, I know it’s not a family of deer, or a possum, or a wild turkey, or, indeed, even a humble squirrel, but of late this little blackbird has been singing his (I have established that it is a male) heart out on a hedge adjacent to my front door. Neither the sound of heavy traffic from the nearby street, nor passersby seems to bother him. He just pays them no never mind and continues with his song despite the fact that nobody appears to be listening to him.

I see people going hurriedly on their way without giving him a second glance, never mind stopping to hear his song. A few short years ago, I would also be one of those people but now I find myself listening out to hear his first few tentative notes before he launches into a crescendo of song.

The other evening, I managed to capture him on video. It was just nightfall and the quality isn’t very good. Hopefully, it will post ok and you will be able to enjoy his song.

So, stop and smell the flowers and listen to this little guy for a moment. He has a message for all of us.

Unwelcome Visitor

According to a report in our local newspaper this weekend there has been a sighting of a large cat-like animal in a locality just a few miles outside Nenagh. One farmer reported seeing “a large black powerful animal “on his farmland on four separate occasions last week.

The animal seen was black in colour, larger than a Labrador dog and had a long black tail. This description has prompted speculation that a black panther is roaming the area. The farmer that first sighted the animal said his sheepdog and her pup gave chase to the animal who made its timely escape. The animal had no difficulty in fleeing the area as “large hedges meant nothing to it” the farmer said.

Speculation that a black panther was loose in the area was fuelled further by the discovery of a dead sheep on the farmers land. Considering the farmer has no sheep on his land and the nearest sheep farm is half a mile away, it was speculated that the panther had dragged the sheep on to the farmers land to eat it.

Another man reported seeing a large black animal which was larger than a German shepherd. The animal was disturbing his goose pen and frightening his goat and his dog.
People phoning the local radio station were assured by an expert that black panthers do not normally attack humans but dogs could be in danger if the animal was hungry.

News of the sighting prompted a wild life enthusiast to drive the 200 mile round trip from his home in Kerry in the hope of photographing the animal or at the very least finding some trace of it in the area. However, after spending a day on the farm of the man who first sighted the animal, he left convinced that there was no panther in the area.

Still, I don’t know. Farmers aren’t usually given to flights of fancy and I’m sure the man in question saw some kind of unusual animal.

As a matter of interest, my own expert from World Wildlife tells me that there really are no black panthers as a type of animal, but there are black leopards and black jaguars. These are sort of reverse albinos, the term being of Melanistic coloration. Melanism occurs because of a mutation or abnormality of one of the cats’ genes which is associated with coat coloration and markings. Often if the light hits the animal the right way, you can see the normal leopard pattern with black on black, though it’s not always easy to see this. If you look closely at the picture below, you will see the leopard spots shining through the animal’s coat.




An unlikely looking adversary for the fearsome-looking creature pictured above, but this animal, with the innocent countenance, which belies his true nature, is the the farmer's dog that took on the strange animal and chased him off his master's land. Good dog!!!